Anya Corazon
Aña "Anya" Sofia Corazón is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, writer Fiona Avery, and artist Mark Brooks, the character made her first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #1. She is the Latina daughter of a Puerto Rican father and a Mexican mother. Corazón was the first Marvel character to adopt the identity Araña, before becoming Spider-Girl. She is the third Spider-Girl published by Marvel, and the first to appear in the mainstream Marvel universe.
Anya Corazón / Spider-Girl made her cinematic debut in the animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and is played by Isabela Merced in Sony's Spider-Man Universe film Madame Web.
Publication history
Anya Corazon was created by Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, writer Fiona Avery, and artist Mark Brooks, and is based on ideas J. Michael Straczynski used in his run on The Amazing Spider-Man. Araña was the star of the resurrected comic book series Amazing Fantasy, launched in 2004. After her storyline ended in Amazing Fantasy #6, she appeared in her own twelve issue series Araña: The Heart of the Spider, starting in March 2005 as part of Marvel Next. The character next appeared in the Ms. Marvel title as a recruit for service as a licensed superhero under the Superhuman Registration Act.She next appears teaming up with Nomad to fight the secret empire in a backup story in Captain America #602-605. Chronologically, her next appearance was during the "Grim Hunt" storyline in The Amazing Spider-Man; however, her appearance in the new Young Allies series was published first.
As the new Spider-Girl, she starred in a monthly Spider-Girl comic that debuted on November 17, 2010 as a tie-in to the "Big Time" storyline in The Amazing Spider-Man. With the change of moniker to Spider-Girl, she's the second published character to adopt the "Spider-Girl" alter-ego, but she actually comes prior to the first character in the chronology of the Marvel Universe. It was announced concurrently with the announcement of the series' cancellation that Anya would be receiving a new mini-series as part of the Spider-Island crossover. The first issue of the mini-series was released one month after the final issue of the cancelled series, and one month after the mini-series ended Anya appeared in one issue of Avengers Academy.
Anya was one of the main characters in Marvel's Spider-Verse event, which led to a spinoff miniseries in Secret Wars, which she was also included in. She was one of the stars in the team comic Web Warriors as a part of All-New, All-Different Marvel.
Fictional character biography
Origin
On her first day at Milton Summers High School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Anya is friends with classmate Lynn Sakura. She is later caught in a skirmish between two mystical clans, the Spider Society and the Sisterhood of the Wasp, and is mortally wounded. To save her life, the mage Miguel Legar from the Spider Society performs a ritual on her by giving her a spider-shaped tattoo that endows her with spider-like powers, and recruits her to be a Hunter for the Spider Society. WebCorps operatives Nina Smith and Ted Mankowski offer her various costumes, but she decides to make her own costume. She designs a costume as "Araña" with red and blue sneakers, blue track pants, red backpack, red gloves with many pockets, and large yellow-lensed goggles. As part of her powers, an insectoid exoskeleton covers most of her body with a bug-like bluish skin. In place of equipment like web-shooters or spider tracers, Anya created her own modified bolas out of discs that are about the size of her palm and have eight red legs able to grip objects. Anya fights a Hunter from The Sisterhood of the Wasp, adversaries of the Spider Society.Heart of the Spider
While interrogating a spy for the Sisterhood of the Wasp, Anya and Miguel discover that the Sisterhood of the Wasp has recruited a fifteen-year-old boy codenamed Amun, a descendant of Egyptian assassins who believes the boy is skilled enough to not need to conceal his own identity. Anya soon meets Amun who has enrolled at her school under the name Jon Kasiya. The two soon deduce each other's dual identities. Later, during a fight with Anya, Miguel, and the Sisterhood of the Wasp, Amun tells her that Amun will attack her loved ones if she opposes. Noting her father Gil Corazon is filming the fight, Anya takes Gil to safety. In her absence, Amun seriously wounds Miguel. The encounter leaves Anya doubting her duty due to the danger it poses to her loved ones. However, in a chance encounter, Spider-Man arrives and, after discussing her origins and adventures, tells her, "With great power comes great responsibility" and that in every age, people are called to be heroes. Soon afterward, Anya fights Amun and, in anger, nearly strangles Amun to death. She is stopped and Amun runs. She learns she had released "the Spirit of the Hunter" and warned not to do it again without Miguel with her. Back at WebCorps, Miguel is revived upon being reunited with Anya, and Miguel tells her the organization's history that would eventually split into Wasps and Spiders. After an encounter with a gunman in a coffee shop, in which Anya saves Lynn and Amun without revealing her secret identity, Amun promises to respect her double life and to stop targeting her friends and family.Night of the Hunter
The Sisterhood of the Wasp recruits Jaime Jade, a Mexican crime lord who has mental abilities that allows to hypnotize other people and was involved in the death of her mother Sofia Corazon. Miguel stops Anya from going after Jade alone with the promise that Anya can punish Jade afterwards. Anya and Amun develop a loose truce because Amun has lost his father as well, so he checks into Jade's possible involvement in Sofia's death. Jade hypnotizes Anya into fighting Miguel, but she eventually breaks free of the control and knocks Jade out. When Jade wakes up, the car Jade is in is suspended by a rope over the river. Jade thinks she's bluffing, saying "Little miss super hero won't want my death on her conscience." to which she replies "No, my conscience feels fine," and lets go of the rope. Amun arrives too late, but Anya reluctantly dives into the water to save Jade but the crime lord has already escaped.Spider-Man/Araña: The Hunter Revealed
In the one-shot Spider-Man/Araña: the Hunter Revealed, she discovers that her exoskeleton is not an ability from being a Hunter, and she has in fact never been a true Hunter. While facing a gigantic monster summoned by the Wasps, she grants her Hunter abilities to Nina and renounces Webcorps. After Miguel is killed saving Nina from the Wasps' hunter, Nina is Webcorps' chosen champion, and Anya is free to pursue a new fate.Civil War
The pro-registration heroes have tasked Carol Danvers and Wonder Man to find Anya, convince her to register, and train her. After foiling an attempted robbery, Anya and her father are taken into custody where Gil learns of Anya's superpowers. Gil is proud to let her train with Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man. Anya's training will essentially comprise her accompanying Wonder Man and Ms. Marvel on missions and playing "sidekick" to the two. Anya accompanies the two to Stark Tower, where she forces herself into a meeting with Iron Man, and then on a mission to capture the Shroud and Arachne. Arachne escapes, but the Shroud is captured and taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. A strike team led by Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man arrives at the home of Arachne's parents to take into custody. After a battle between the heroes, Arachne is arrested and her daughter Rachel Carpenter forcibly separated. Anya is deeply shaken by the ordeal and states that if being a hero means separating a mother from her child, she wants no part of it. However, she remains part of the pro-Registration strikeforce.Before a battle with Doomsday Man, Ms. Marvel asks Anya to go get help if she fails to make contact by a certain time. Eventually, Anya joins the battle, and Doomsday Man rips away her exoskeleton, severely injuring her. Although she eventually recovers, her exoskeleton is gone. Gil takes out a restraining order to keep Ms. Marvel away from her, but Anya secretly visits Ms. Marvel to say she is not to blame for what happened. Soon after, Anya quits her job, and is confronted by Arachne who is enraged and demands to know Rachel's whereabouts. Anya manages to subdue Arachne, but chooses to accompany Ms. Marvel and Arachne in their attempt to find Rachel, even though that means violating the restraining order her father has placed against Ms. Marvel.
Anya gets into a fight with Gil for treating her like a child after Gil accuses her of seeing Ms. Marvel. She tells Gil at least Carol is showing her how to grow up. She is later captured by Chilean soldiers who deliver her to the Puppet Master; she is added to a collection of female heroes that includes Stature, Dusk, Tigra, and Silverclaw. During a battle with Ms. Marvel's team, Anya is partially subdued by Machine Man and Sleepwalker, and resists the Puppet Master's command that she kill Ms. Marvel whom she sees as a mother figure.